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Famoso, Edmonton

Famoso sign

I have finally sampled pizza nirvana (or at least as close as you can come when you are in Edmonton).

A group of friends and I trekked over to the south-side Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria for a get together on Saturday. Greedily, we decided to order one different pizza each – that way we could try many kinds and share slices. It was a little bit too much pizza to eat (many of us took home leftovers), but we were happy to sacrifice ourselves for the sake of good eating. They were all excellent pizzas, but I admit I did have a couple of particular favourites.

Famoso’s pizza uses highly refined, low-gluten flour imported from Italy. This means a thin, crispy and light crust. No greasiness here – just the light taste of olive oil and fresh ingredients. Pizzas come with 2 sauces depending on which pizza you order; the pizza rossa (red), which consists of San Marzano tomato sauce made of crushed tomatoes and basil leaf, and the pizza bianca (white), made with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and oregano pizza sauce. Also, while many of the pizzas contained cheese, the amount of cheese on the pizza is a lot less than what you find on North American pizzas. I love cheese, and I was surprised at how little I missed having so much of it on a pizza slice.

Pizza #1 – Margherita – fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil, with added extra toppings of olives, onions and roasted mushrooms. Was yummy but had a few too many olives for my taste.

Pizza #4 – Bella – fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, spicy capicolla ham and cherry tomatoes, with added extra toppings of roasted mushrooms. This pizza was similar to the margherita, but better. The spicy ham complimented the other flavours wonderfully and the halved cherry tomatoes gave the pizza bursts of juice. This was the pizza that I ordered, and I was really glad I picked this one. Another pizza that I would gladly eat again.

Bella pizza

Pizza #5 – Pollo – fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, roasted chicken, roasted red pepper and artichoke hearts. This pizza was good too, but I wish there had been a larger quantity of toppings.

Pollo pizza

And finally, after all that pizza, we had dessert. Some of my friends were disappointed to find out that they had sold out of tiramisu while we ate our pizza. So if you have your heart set on tiramisu, you should probably pick it up at the same time you order your pizza. I was very tempted to order the nutella pizza but as I had eaten way too much pizza dough in one sitting, I decided to join my friends in sharing some gelato. We ended up with creme brulee (left scoop, tasted like caramel), mint chocolate chip (right scoop, perfect amount of both mint and chocolate) and coconut (back scoop, the best flavour of the three, came complete with bits of coconut). The gelato was creamier than regular ice cream, but contained low levels of butterfat (7-9% according to their menu). These scoops were a great way to end a fantastic meal.

Gelato

There are two Famoso locations and both have limited amounts of seating, so be prepared to wait for a table. Take out is also available, but the crust is best eaten straight out of their oven. This isn’t the kind of pizza that tastes better cold and for breakfast.

Great review and I’m glad you enjoyed the pizza. I’m a big fan. They make a few delicious salads as well. I once created a ‘banana split’ bowl with their gelato flavors – chocolate, strawberry and banana.